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Nights Below James Street
Washington The Evergreen State is bordered on the north by Canada, Oregon to the south, Idaho on the east, and the Pacific to the west. The northwest corner consists of the Olympic Peninsula, with its rainforests and the towering Olympic Mountains. However, the region east of the Cascades, the forested and sometimes volcanically active mountains running north to south through the state, is largely dry, including the arid Columbia Plateau in the south. Forming the border between Washington and Oregon is the Columbia River, one of the world's greatest sources of hydroelectric power. The state is home to a variety of industries, from lumbering to their famous apples to the manufacture of jet aircraft, missiles, and even spacecraft. The Decepticons, in need of electrical wiring, processors, shunts, and a host of other technological equipment for one of their recent projects, have come to Seattle, Washington, one of the human Mecca's of technological development, and a great deal further away than the San Francisco bay area. It is about four o'clock in the morning, and most of the humans are asleep. Some light snow has fallen on the buildings, trees, and grass, but the streets are fairly clean, since the asphalt has retained the day's heat. A blue car with tinted windows pulls up towards one of the warehouses, near the Seattle Underground and transforms into an evil Decepticon, "Come on, it's in here." And he tries to jimmy the lock to the warehouse. Windshear was gliding in jet mode following the car and when that con transforms so does he. He touches down softly and then looks at the wet pavement, makes a face and then with a glance around walks up to the con trying to jimmy the lock. Windy watches him for a minute, "You have no idea how to do that, do you?" he rasps dryly. Circling high above the nameless blue car, and the rasping Seeker, under the cover of the clouds in the sky, is a Sweepcraft. Which Sweep might this be? Those who needed to know knew that Scourge himself had returned from whatever Hunt or task set before him by Galvatron, and was once again making his presence known. Ahh, but known how? What nefarious scheme was the Tracker/Terminator furthering this cold, early morn? Windshear gives the blue carcon a deadpan look. "Chromedome? So I look chrome?" with a twitch of his wings he looks at the lock. Its been a long time but hes got a very easy remedy for it if he cant pick it. He starts working on the lock then asks, "Just /why/ are we even bothering to pick this lock anyway?" Sneering, or he would be were he in his robot mode, Scourge snarls his reply over the short-range radio, being far too high up to simply speak to the impertinent fool on the ground below. <> His advanced scanners and sensors waiting, watching, for his prey, he was certain the Autobots would not be far away...And he sincerely hoped that with them would be one he wished to 'settle a score' with. The blue vehicular Decepticon's voice was heard, but the Sweep was so far up it had to use the commlink to reply. He mutters in a low whisper, "Damn, good audio sensors." And then he laughs at the Seeker's attempts to pry the lock, "We're trying to pick the lock so we don't wake up the humans. I bet the place is crawling with Autobots, and we wouldn't want the humans to point us out, now would we, eh, Air Commander?" Funny how a little change in the weather could cause so many people to seemingly forget how to drive... Well, okay, can't really blame them when there was a bit of the trademark Seattle rain before it turned to snow, resulting in a layer of icy roads beneath the light powdering. And because of that, Horsepower had spent the last hour or so pulling a rather heavy freight semi out of a deep ditch it'd slid into, and was just now pulling into the lot of the distribution company it belonged to drop it off. By sheer chance, this was only a few blocks away from where nefarious sorts were doing nefarious deeds. Flying high in the air is none other than POWERGLIDE, the coolest of the cool, the flyest of the fly, the reddest of the red. What's he doing up this late/early? That's a question he's asking himself right now. "Uggh, why do we have shifts this early? It's not like anything is going to happen at four in the friggin' morning anyway," he mumbles to himself as he barrel rolls lazilly through the clouds. "I'm cold.." Skydive kneels on a Portland sidewalk outside of a bookstore (the city is packed with them). He confers with one of the employees, who goes into the store and then emerges with a different book. Most of them have to do with the history of aviation naturally. Windshear realizes he didnt do too much better then the carcon. Normally he -- unlike most Decepticons, would admit he screwed up but hes not in his usual easy going mood. Oh slag no. All he did the day before was be a goffer in a walker a few THOUSAND feet /underwater/! Hes still miffed about that so instead of commenting that he cant pick the lock he resorts to plan B; The 'Remedy'. The Seeker steps back, puts one of his arm cannon barrel tips dead to the lock and melts it off the door. Then he causally pushes the door open, "Lock taken care of." is all he rumbles as he cautiously steps inside. Hinder is currently no more than a little off-white rectangle mag-locked to Windshear's shoulder. Snaptrap told her to 'keep an eye' on Windshear. This counts... right? Still far above, the circling Sweepcraft merely chuckles at the nameless blue Gumby's words. Yes, the Sweeps were prized for their enhanced senses. It was part of what made them such efficient Trackers. The Hunt was what they were created for. For now, the impertinence of that one would be tolerated. He would be useful when the Autobots arrived, as a distraction while Scourge prepared to strike. It had been far too long since the Sweep Leader had been able to sink his talons into an Autobot. And, as if on cue, his Unicronian sensors picked up the tell-tale signs of Autobots. Most too far away to be an immediate threat...But one...One of them, at least, was airborn. And just about the same altitude as the Sweep himself. That could easily pose a problem, but a problem that could be utilized. But still just at the edges of even his sensor range. <> Cyberpunk Wrecker Rig was to more or less sit and wait while the semi is unhooked from his towing rig, but keeps his motor running. Meanwhile the warehouse manager walks around the left side, clearly one who spends most of the time in the warehouse office by how much more professionally she's dressed. "Benny, what do ya think you were doing out there! I radioed the roads were icy." "You radioed that they were -snowy-," retorts the truck driver as he climbs out of the wrecker truck's passanger side. "There was ice beneath it." "Yeah, yeah." The manager waves it off, and steps aside to look to the driver. "Thanks for the help mis--" And notices the empty cab. "--ter?" "Nah, no need t'thank me fer doin' my job fella," Horsepower rumbles in reply, then shuts his own cab-door as he gets the signal the semi is unhooked from behind him and starts to pull away. The manager just rubs her head with a sigh. "Still not use to giant self-driving robot trucks from space..." The blue vehicular Decepticon says, a little too loudy, "Wait, you idiot!" But he can't stop the Seeker in time as the lock is smelted by the disruptor blast. In the snowy environment, the bright lights of the energy weapon reflect in the snow. "You're going to wake the humans, and who knows what Autobots are probably in the area. They seem to breed like wildfire on this planet. You can't step into a urban settlement without half a dozen showing up." Windshear looks back at the blue con, "Since when does light wake fleshlings?" Hinder actually HAS been paying attention, and she pipes up via short-range radio transmission. << Should I enter the buildings? Would that make this faster? >> The blue vehicular Decepticon shrugs, “Primus, I don’t know. Their optics are photosensitive, aren’t they?” Windshear thinks for a moment, "How should I know? I dont care to know actually -- hinder, yes I think that would be a good idea. You know what we are looking for." and he angles his shoulder a bit so she can get to the ground fairly easily once she detaches herself. Still circling, using the cloud cover to conceal himself, Scourge watches, his enhanced senses keeping track of what the Decepticons are doing, his sensor systems keeping tabs on the Autobots within range. For the moment, he merely watches, the patience of a hunter and the anticipation of the carnage to come keeping him high above...For now. There's a simple explanation why Jazz happens to be cruising the snowy streets of Seattle at this time of the night. The bars have just closed and another night of rock shows has come to an end! The snow-covered Porsche zooms through the downtown district pumping loud music as he usually does, <> Coming up to a stop light, Jazz notices a Starbucks is on the corner. <> The light turns green and the Porsche slowly comes up to the following light with his engine purring powerfully. <> Popping into gear as the light turns green once again, the Porsche makes a right turn onto a side street and moves on until it comes to another stop light. Reflecting off his windshield is the brightly lit sign that read "Starbucks: Open 24 Hours". Jazz feels like he's reached some sort of weird nexus of the universe. <> Just then, the Porsche's dashboard light flickers on and off as radio communiques replaces the music in his cabin. That's when the Porsche peels out and takes off in the direction of the warehouse district. Light snow flurries splatter against Powerglide's canopy as he flies through the sky. He wiggles back and forth but it does nothing to dislodge the snow. "Ugh! Great! Just what I need! White crap all over me. Ooooh winter is so much fun, Powerglide! Ooooh, snow is so pretty, Powerglide! HA!" He could go on and on, talking to himself like a mad man but something catches his attention: a message over the frequency. Something about lights flashing? Although it sounds lame and completely unrelated to anything, the Autobot decides to give it a looksee. He begins to drop altitude. Skydive tilts his head to the side, listening to something on internal comms, then apologizes hastily to the bookstore guy before running down the street, transforming and lifting off into the air. He keeps his speed low to avoid disturbing the still-sleeping city, but once he's high enough he accelerates to supersonic speeds. Cyberpunk Wrecker Rig is not nearly as maneuverable as the sleek and nimble Jazz, and has to go the long way around a block of right turns to get pointed in the right direction. So it takes a few minutes and a coordinates transmission later before the larger wrecker comes up behind the Porsche, dimming his main headlights and bringing up the running spotlights on his roof to help illuminate the way. "Only saw it fer a few nanoclicks, but it looked... oughta place." The blue vehicular Decepticon stands away from Windshear as he lets the little cassette sneak into the warehouse alone. Behind him, and high up, there's a blue Starbucks logo with the words "coming soon" plastered beneath it. Hinder transforms and skids off of Windshear's shoulder to the ground. Shaking herself off briefly she shuffles on into the building as if it were the most normal thing in the world. She's already got a list of what needs to be acquired, so she speeds up to a bounding jog as she looks for... ah! She happens upon a large coil of copper wiring and a quick glance says it'll fit the bill. It takes a bit of fenagling, but then she's shuffling quickly back toward the door with the coil of wire around her middle like a very ungainly hula hoop. Having been keeping his sensors on the Autobots, Scourge smirks to himself. Ahh, the fun is about to begin. <> Watching Powerglide descend, his sensors pick up a second flier, inbound and moving FAST. Oh, things could get interesting. <> Windshear watches Hinder return with the copper wire, as only she could. He smirks and then glances back at the blue carcon, "Keep an optic out for Autobots." he looks back at Hinder, "Very good, Hinder. Go find the next item." he rasps as he helps her out of the coil and stashes it in... his subspace pocket. He shrugs. Better than nothing. Hinder stops and looks up as Scourge alerts them to incoming meanies, and she lets the wire drop to the ground. She hops out of the loop of wire and turns to bound back inside as quickly as she can. The blue vehicular Decepticon shrinks, contorts, and manages to slide through the loading door, but it’s hard. Once inside, “All right, since the others are off bot hunting, I’ll see what I can dig up in here with you Hinder. What have you found so far, and . . . where’s the light switch? I can’t see a blasted thing in here?” And to emphasise it, he stubs his toe and bounces around, “ooh. That hurt!” The blue vehicular Decepticon snaps back, “My headlights become part of my back when I transform, chromedome.” Windshear twitches his left wing, "Youre a lotta help arent you? First you cant pick a lock then you can only light up where youve been, not where youre going..." Powerglide's shadow falls over the warehouse as he sweeps over it at an impressively low altitude before pulling back up into the air. "Oh, just some robots breaking into a warehouse. No biggie," he says nonchalantly. "WAITWHAT" Powerglide pulls an airplane u-turn and sweeps over the area again. "Don't those guys ever sleep? Geez!" Hinder stops and looks up at the blue Decepticon, then fumbles about for a moment before finding a light switch. She hops up on her hind feet to slap the switch with her front feet, then bounds away again in search of more useful stuff. Ooh... a pallet of boxes with a major computer company's logo. She bites into the corner of the pallet and starts dragging it along. This may be too slow to be worth the effort. Windshear wasnt expecting the lights to come on and he grabs his optis, ".. Light!" he stammers and stumbles back out the doorway and onto the sidewalk before the door. Having been watching, waiting, Scourge circles still. Patient, still hiding far above the rest in the cloud cover, relying on his sensors and enhanced senses to keep tabs on everything. Snarling to himself at having apparently been ignored, he shoves thoughts of punishing those present to the back of his mind and prepares himself to descend upon the Autobots...Once they're all in position. "Fools." is all he mutters to himself regarding those below. Skydive decelerates as he reaches Seattle airspace, has a hasty radio conversation with local air traffic and then joins the other Autobots by means of a low-altitude flyby. Not as low as Powerglide, of course, but Skydive is no doubt taking notes. One wouldn't expect a truck of his size to be particularly fast, but Horsepower learned a trick or two about throwing his weight around with the time he spent on Velocitron. So although he can't get up to full racing speed in middle of a human city, he's still making an exceptionally fast clip as he leans around a corner and suddenly comes barreling down the street in front of the building. Heavy duty lights illuminate his way, and if the Seeker turned to look at the right moment he might just catch a glimps of his own reflection on the heavy plow on the front. After winding his way through the maze of Starbucks downtown, Jazz finally gets himself onto the highway and in the direction of the warehouse district. Approaching the coordinates Horsepower transmitted earlyer, the Porsche turns up his sensors for a full sweep of the area. <> After firing a quick message to his faction members in the area, the Porsche slows down and kills its lights, finding a dimly-lit area to transform. Whatever these Decepticons were after, Jazz would get to the bottom of it. It might take a little under-cover work of sorts to figure it out though. Approaching the warehouse, the Intelligence Director quickly spots the commotion and looks for a back-door entrance to the place. Sweeping his blue visor up towards the side of the warehouse, he reads Back Door Entrance. Jazz turns to the camera and offers a grin as he slips inside and into the darkness. Powerglide flies over the warehouse one more time but this time he transforms and lands on top of it with a thud. He stands there, arms akimbo, for a few seconds before opening his chest compartment and pulling out a pair of sunglasses. "It looks like this heist..." he slips the sunglasses on. "Just got robbed." He throws a fist in the air and screams, "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Okay, so the pun was kind of half-assed but it's the thought that counts. Windshear was trying to stop seeing spots in front of him from the sudden flash of light when he hears the roar of a groundpounder engine behind him. The Seeker spins around into.. more light. "GAH!" he rasps and now his optics are overloaded again. But thats the least of his worries as when he spun around he hit a patch of ice and has no idea what happens next. Gravity is not his friend as his feet fly out from under him and he falls flat on his back sliding a few feet away. He barely sees the side of a truck barrel through where he /was/ standing and shaking his head he puts his optics into reboot and activates his radar. <<"Weve got company.">> he says through the comm to the bluecon and Hinder, <<"Get the stuff and lets get out of here!">> he adds as he fires at the truck. High up above the stratosphere, a little stego-tape is flying. He's trying to find where the other Decepticons have gone and he's a little confused. So he may or may not bump into a waiting Sweepcraft. The blue vehicular Decepticon, now that he has light, goes about his business. He's heard from Scourge that there are Auobots nearby, so he's on alert, but for now, it seems that they can continue their work unimpeded, or so he thought. Turning around to look at Windshear, he laughs, "Decepticons on ice! Nice work there, chromedome. Haha." Continuing to circle among the clouds, the Sweepcraft that is Scourge takes a few moments to pick his target...And what a plethora of targets to choose from. But Scourge wanted only one of those present. A somewhat aging score to settle, for past transgressions. With the enhanced senses given him by Unicron during his creation, he spotted his prime target blaze into the area, and slip into the shadows at the back of the warehouse. For now, it occured to the Sweep that other targets presented better opportunities...And more immediate threats. But patience was a hunter's best weapon. Taking a moment to lock his sensors onto the flier on the roof of the building, he smirks to himself and prepares very carefully his next move. Hinder pulls the pallet of computer boxes to JUST within the blue Decepticon's line of sight before she bounds away again in search of more useful stuff. "HeyheyHEY!" Powerglide shouts, pointing at the nameless blue gumby. "What are YOU laughing at? Crime is NOT a laughing matter. Unless a clown is the one doing the crime. Then it's hilarious! But I don't see no clowns..." He takes off his sunglasses, folds them up, and places them back into his chest. "Just a sucker lookin' to get shot. PEW PEW!" Powerglide pulls out his pistol and shoots at the gumby. Skydive pulls up to get a better angle of attack on the Decepticons below. Suddenly Seattle Air Traffic control is sending urgent updates about an unidentified contact, suspected Decepticon. Skydive turns until he's facing Scourge, sensors taking in the unusual and distinctive profile. "Oh no." The Aerialbots fires off a few long-range laser bolts, trying to throw off Scourge's aim, take his attention off of the Autobots below, anything. Horsepower missed directly, but watching the Seeker freak out and then wipeout on his own is just as amusing, he's got to admit. He hits the breaks and does a controlled skid to stop sideways, the laser shots hitting his side and blowing off a chunk of armor. Except that the armor plate was meant to be blasted off, preventing damage to the actual Autobot. Then it lurches upwards and unfolds into his equally bulky robot mode. "Ah guess this makes ya my rumblin' partner, flyboy." Heavy footfalls thump on the pavement as he dashes back towards Windshear and swings a heavy right fist at his head. Then follows it up with a quick cross-jab with his left at his chest. Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Jazz activates the noise-dampeners on his metallic boots as he creeps through the dimly-lit warehouse. With a tap on the side of his helm, his blue visor fades into darkness. The Intelligence Director hadn't risen through the ranks without learning a few tricks here and there. It also helped to be Perceptor's guinea pig. Sometimes. Slowly picking up a large cane-like device, Jazz creeps up on the energon signature just ahead. Pausing to calculate his upcoming set of maneuvers, the Autobot takes a moment to spring into action! The cane-like device hooks around the blue Decepticon's neck and just like that he's yanked out of the light and into the darkness. Much like a comedian who's bombing on stage. With a few clanks and muffles in the darkness, it doesn't take long before silence returns, leaving his teammates to wonder exactly what happened to whats-his-name. Windshear gets the internal green light that his optics have reset and right as he brings them back online, he gets clocked in the head. That rung his bell and he stumbles back darn near sliping in the ice again. He takes a thumb to the chest and then laughs, "My kind of fight, Autobot." Windshear rasps and then swings a tight right heymaker aiming directly for the bots nose. A lesser hunter may very well have been distracted by the sudden barrage of laser fire biting into his armor. Scourge, however, was not so easily distracted. His sensors, despite the biting sting of enemy fire, remained locked on target as he suddenly dove, revealing his position to those not yet aware, and happening to look upward. Like a bullet, the Sweepcraft descends suddenly and swiftly, reaching incredible velocities on his beeline for Powerglide, still arrogantly standing on the roof of the building, an easy target for anyone. Scourge would deal with the fool who fired upon him momentarily. The blue vehicular Decepticon is yanked from behind, silently and stealthily, dragged into some unknown space, and dealt with. He doesn't even get out a yelp, the Special Operations Agent is so good. Though Hinder may be left to wonder, just what became of Whats-his-Name. Slugfest descends down to where the Sweep has gone. "Helloooo, where everybody goooo?" he calls out. Well, nobody ever accused Slugfest of being intelligent. Hinder keeps on snagging and dragging various items until Windshear or someone scoops her up when they all leave the area. The stamp Made by Unicron still carries a lot of weight these days. As the Sweepcraft ploughs into, and through part of the building, taking a corner of it off, it shakes, falls, and slams into the pavement. The Sweepcraft tries to pull up, to not slam into another building, but he cannot and takes out a rather large portion of its foundation as a sweepcraft sized hole goes through the centre of it, and . . . he just keeps going. You see, this area is what they call the Seattle Underground, an area where the city was rebuilt on top of the older city, which had at one point suffered earthquakes. Crashing through the floor, the sweepcraft finally comes to a stop in what looks like an old hallway, dusty, decrepit , and formerly, walled up. It had been sealed up. In corner, there is a pile of rubble, and out of it, there appears to be a hand, a robotic hand. Skydive dives after Scourge like his namesake, but quickly calculates the velocity, angle and alitutude of the Sweep and aborts pursuit. Even if Scourge can pull out, Skydive doesn't trust his own design's limits to follow. Instead, he transforms and sets down on a taller building nearby. There he produces his pistol and looks anxiously at the building, his Autobot ally who was the target of Scourge's charge and the results of the attack. "Hey, where'd he go?" Powerglide asks to no one in particular as good ol' Whats-His-Name disappears in the blink of an eye. He scratches the back of his head and shrugs. "Eh, whatever. He probably ran away because he was so scared of the awesomeness that is Pow-" Before he can finish, a UFO whizzes past him and crashes through the warehouse roof. "HOLY $#1959&! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" The force of the impact shakes him to the core and he is sent tumbling off the side of the roof, landing in a pile of snow below. "Did anyone else see that!?" The return blow to the head causes Horsepower's head to snap to the side, but it's a good thing he's already got his battlemask in place to keep his face from getting scrunched. But now that he's gotten a close-up look at the Seeker he reconizes him. ".. Hey, ya were at the bar the other cycle." The reconition doesn't stop him from continuing though. As he takes a step back the panels on the outside of one forearm pops up and extends a pair of nozzles from underneath. "Y'like shots of the strong stuff, lets see how ya handle some of this!" What gushes out of the nozzles appears to be some of the molten runoff from forging metal, and it's still a bit on the hot side to boot! For those wondering what's happened to whats-his-name, that's the beauty of story telling! Sometimes, it's /you/ that has to imagine what's happened. So the Decepticon could be bound in ener-cuffs with his mouth welded shut or he might even be tucked away in a corner with X's where his optics used to be. Either way, /you/ make the call. Eh, on second thought, let's just say he can't be found. Content with his stealth attack, Jazz is about to get in contact with his team when Scourge comes blasting through the roof like he really needed to use the bathroom down below and couldn't wait to walk through the warehouse door, walk down a few flights of stairs to the elevator, push the 'B' button inside, hum to the elevator music, and arrive in the Seattle Underground 2 minutes later. Curiosity is KILLING Jazz here. He ponders answering Powerglide's radio transmission, but instead he slinks back into the shadows and slowly makes his way down into the hole that the Sweepcraft has created. Hopefully the city of old wouldn't have a 100 Starbucks to throw navigation off. Windshear sidesteps as the stream of hot molten goop splats where he was standing a second earlier, "I think ID have that looked at if I were you." he rasps and then aims a nasty backhand toward the Autobots face. Slugfest paws through the rubble after going through the hole that Scourge left when he crashed. He noses around, investigating the area. What might he find there? The insecticon is non-responsive. Having been caught in a cave in over a year ago, he first tried transform and escape, but it only made things worse as he fell even further behind the rubble. He managed to claw, blast, and eat his way out, to an extent, but there was just more rubble. And so, after several weeks of attempted escapes, which only seemed to worsen his predicament, he simply went into a power saver mode, to keep his laser core active as long as possible, in the hopes that someone, anyone would find his distress signal. Powerglide begins to shake. First, a Decepticon disappears before his eyes then something crashes next to him. Is this stuff really happening or is he hallucinating? Did he do too many drugs in his youth and only now are the effects starting to rear their ugly heads? Is he going crazy? So many concerns buzz around Powerglide's head. Luckily a nearby brawl distracts him and he forgets all about his potential craziness. The Autobot stands up and pumps his fists. "YEAH! C'MON HOSS! BEAT HIS ASS! Or his face. I CAN'T TELL WHICH IS WHICH! HAA~" Horsepower cusses under his breath as the Seeker dodges and the hot liquid metal just eats a chunk out of a long forgotten lamppost instead. Must not have the spouts aligned fully. But there's little time to worry about the conniptions of misfiring weaponry right at this moment as Windshear comes back swinging! But the fist falls short this time as Horsepower snaps out one of his chains, grabbing it in both hands and holding it up to catch the Seeker's blow against, and twisting it around his wrist. Then pivots and puts his strength into yanking the Seeker off his feet, swinging as the chain unreels to fling Windshear farther down the street towards the pile of rubble, and possibly catch the tape pawing at it with Seeker or chain in the process. After carefully navigating his way down the tunnel Scourge has created, Jazz manages to arrive at the bottom where he comes across Slugfest pawing at a heap of rubble. But wait! There's a hand in the rubble! Could it be?! Shredder's ALIVE?!? Oh yea, wrong movie. Though Jazz makes a mental note to find out which Autobot borrowed his "Secret of the Ooze" and never returned it. The nerve of some people. Deciding whether he should spring out into the open just yet, Jazz decides to bide his time once more. For now, he hides behind another conviently placed heap of rubble, watching the commotion through his now-dark visor. Windshear realizes his fist struck air and then is suddenly wrapped in a chain and flung. Out of instinct his activates his thrusters and breaks his impending fall slightly but not totally and ends up smashing into and over Slugfest. Poor Dinocassette. Seekers arent heavy as Transformers go but compared to a cassettecon stegosaw, he must weigh a ton. "Sor--ry.. slug.." he stammers as he hits the ground and gets into an instant wrestling match with the chain. Then he realizes hes not.. where he was. Hes under the road. He fell through that hole. "Sluggy?" he asks as he stands and looks around. Slugfest eeeees as he's hit by the painful attack. He's pushed further into the hole...and lands right next to the hand. He noses at it. "Wonder who hand this is," he says, and attempts to grab onto it with his mouth. Slugfest clears a little bit of the rubble as he crashes into it, but if it were enough to uncover the hand and its owner, the owner would have done it long ago. There doesn’t seem to be any movement coming from the hand, and its showing virtually no power signature at all. Powerglide runs up to Horsepower, his hand raised to give him all the high-fives. All of them. "Good job, dude! You sent those guy straight into hell! At least that's where I /think/ that hole goes.." He peeks over the side and down in to the dark depths of the aforementioned hole. "Yeesh... I wonder what's down there.." "What hand, Sluggy?" Windhear asks then looks up toward the entrance to the 'hole' to sees Powerglide looking down at him. With a grin he raises his cannon and fires. Horsepower returns the high-fives to the smaller minibot. "Not quite where I was aimin'.. but I ain't complainin' either." Then walks over to kneel down at the edge of the hole and peer down it. "Y'all ready t'give up down thare, or do Ah gotta com'in down after ya?" Then replies to Powerglide matter of factly, "Poo poo gas." As a matter of fact Jazz happens to be 'down there' and his curiosity is completely maxed out right now as he stares at the life-less hand dangling from the rubble. Who's hand could that be? Could it be someone he knows of? Or maybe it's a Decepticon he's never heard of? Whoever it was, the bad guys had managed to send quite the diverse force to retrieve this robot. Jazz perks up as he hears Powerglide and Horsepower above. He was glad to see he had back-up if things quickly turned for the worst. And so the vigilant Autobot continues his observation from the shadows, waiting for the right moment to spring into action. "OH GROSS," Powerglide exclaims with a disgusted look on his face. "Well, atleast Windshear will like it down there. Insert your own joke about how he smells here." He begins to laugh but stops when laser fire erupts from the hole. "Woah! Guess they're still alive afterall." Slugfest continues to tug at the hand. "Windy, help! It heavy!" he says, "No know who is, but hand purple so must be septycon." Horsepower sees the glint of weapons being raised down below, and swings out an arm to shove Powerglide back from the edge of hole, taking the blunt of the fire himself. "Guess that's an answer!" Then pulls out... is that a pair of nailguns? Yes, yes they are. Modified into working more like SMGs by the look of it, as he fires a barrage back at the Decepticon down the hole with one in each hand, gunslinger style. Windshear hears Slugfest say something about a purple hand and its Decepticon and turns to see what the Stegosaw is babbling about right as Horsepower fires. Its perfect comedic timing and as the Seeker takes the first step theres a THUMPTHUMPTHUMP of 'nails' slammed into the ground right where he was a split second earlier. Windshear looks back up the hole but realizes theres more important things to do right now; find out who this Decepticon is, then exchanging fire with Autobots, fun though it might be. "What did you find, Slugfest?" Windshear asks as he joins the Stego and looks at the purple hand...well it looks more black than anything else, "Whoever it is they lookk to be dead, sluggy." but none the less he kneels down and tries to unbury the unknown Decepticon. For once Jazz actually wants the Decepticons to get on their with shenanigans. The Intelligence Director can see Slugfest is struggling to pry the hand free and Windshear is busy playing Rambo. Jazz feels like running out into the open to yank the hand free and end this mystery once and for all. THUMPTHUMPTHUMP Ah ha! That's when it rains over-sized nails from above and the Decepticons finally get back to the task at hand. Jazz hopes Windshear and Slugfest can do the the heavy-lifting for him. Then he can swing on in and take it from there. Amidst the digging, and firing, one could easily overlook a simple, quiet sound, that of splintering, as one of the wooden support beams has cracked, years ago, but it seems that the crash of the Sweepcraft, and all the thumping about, has weakened it. The camel’s back has just had another straw placed upon it, so to speak. Windshear ignores the bots on the surface and pulls away rubble from the buried con until he gets to the mech itself. They sure look dead but he runs a scan nonetheless. But just as he starts he hears something and looks toward the sound. "I dont think I like that sound, sluggy." he rasps and looks around for a second at just where they are. Good thing that, as seekers go, hes not claustophobic. He goes back to the scan and soon has his reading. "Ok whoever it is /isnt't/ dead. Stasis, low on energon. We can take care of that." and he begins to open an access panal on the downed cons chest. Then opening his own he pulls out a hose and connects it inside the chest of the down mech. Direct energon transfer, quick and effective. Horsepower fires until the 'clips' are empty, then stows the tools-turned-weapon away again in subspace. "Either they've run off, or they're ignorin' us down thare," he rumbles, considering as he squints down into the darkness.. then catchs a glint of movement below. ".. They're still kickin', but Ah can't see what they're doin, and -that- is what bugs me." With a grunt he pushes himself to his feet, and pulls his boom-arm up over his shoulder, then braces it with his hands as he leans over a bit, and fires the hook and line at Windshear's back while he's digging in the rubble. Windshear satisfied with the readings on the energy levels on the con he reattached his energon line and closed his chese panel right as he gets speared in the back, dead between his wings. The Seekers wings flex back instantly and warnings flash acros shis HUD. Its not excactly a scratch and he falls back for a moment. Then he twists around and aims up out of the hole. That alone most mechs couldnt hand as when he twists the hook shifts in his back but hes pretty badaft with things like that. Though it does make him falter for just a split second before he fires back up toward Horsepower. "Ok us got him, now what do?" Slugfest wonders, scurrying around. "I think you caught something, Hoss!' Powerglide says gleefully. "Mmmm, but he's a fighter. You're gunna hafta soften him up before you can reel 'im in." He stands up tall (haha yeah right) and stretches. "WISH ME LUCK!" he hollers before diving in to the hole. After a few seconds he lands on the ground but his legs buckle and he collapses in a heap. "Ohhh that was far..." For the moment, the Decepticon still appears to be powered down. His limp and lifeless body is pulled up, but it seems to show no sign of movement. The tattered remains of this purple, black, and silver Decepticon, no doubt. Though, perhaps he’s just playing possum. "Bullseye!" Horsepower exclaims as he feels the towline connect. But then Windshear starts shooting back again! He grunts, leaning backwards to brace himself, and by sheer luck avoids a thermal laser to the face. "Fiesty bugger! Ah'm gonna have to do this th' hard way." With line locked in place he takes a step back, and transforms, boom-arm shifting into place on the truck backside without having to unhook. Wheels spin briefly as he puts it into gear before catching traction, and with a heavy lurch the rig rumbles forward, intending to use all that horsepower to yank the Seeker and whatever else he may be holding onto down there out of the opening! Windshear feels the vibration of the bots motors through the tow cable buried in his back and cant helpt but wince slighly. Then he gets yanked. "Slug.." he says tightly, "GRab .. the.. con.. me.. hang ..on." he grabs at the line as his vision blurs a bit through the warnings screaming across his internal monitor. Hes not a happy Seeker right now. But if anything good can come out of this, at least they will get a free lift out of there. But he could have thought of a better way to do it outside of towline buried in his back. Slugfest grabs the con in his mouth and runs to Windshear, hopefully the Seeker can grab his tail! Slugfest digs his spiky tail into the con, dragging him along, then grabbing Windshear's leg in his mouth! Windshear ia suddenly BIT on the leg. His optics widen a bit. Well thats one way to hang on to him... Powerglide stands up and dusts himself off. He brings up his fists, "YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!" It seems, however, that everyone is on their way out via Horsepower and his line. "Damn, what is that!? I come down here and everyone leaves? Typical.." Cyberpunk Wrecker Rig 's engine revs in an almost groaning fashion as he ends up hoisting more weight than he was expecting from one Decepticon... and instead there's three on the line! "Tarnation!" If he'd known that he would of used a heavier line! As is just as the Decepticons are yanked to the surface the strain is enough to snap the hook free and the loss of resistance sends the wrecker hurtling down the street. Horsepower hits the brakes with a screech, and when that isn't enough transforms. Only to skid the rest of the way on his stomach and crash into a dumpster, which flips over on top of him. ".. Ugh. Loadout's gonna be pissed 'bout this," he mutters from under the trash. The battered and beaten Insecticon's optics flicker, and flash a bright red. He inclines his head, towards the spike that has impaled his right hand. Reaching up, he gently and carefully removes the spike, allowing him to plummet back into the hole, but before he descends fully, he stops himself, anti-gravity systems engaged, he hovers there for a moment, "Autobots, I do wish I could stay and chat, but . . . I'm afraid I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye." And he begins to fly upwards, leaving his would be rescuers to deal with the Autobots on their own. Windshear gets drug out fo the hole the hard way with two in tow. Once he hits the ground and the towline snaps he hears the con they just recsscued come online and then just .. leave.. What irony.. and on that note windy fades offline. Horsepower sits up, grabs the dumpster in both hands and takes a few tugs to pull it free of his head. Tosses it aside and pulls a busted bag off his face before removing his battlemask. "Well, that wasn't the most graceful of stops." By the time he's got his bearings back the Decepticons have left, so he trudges back to the hole and tosses the end of his chain whip down so Powerglide can climb out. Slugfest has Windshear with him and just flees back to base. It's bedtime for little stegos! Powerglide gets clonked in the head by the chain. "Ugh! Damn it.." He grabs on to it and begins to climb up and out of the hole. When his head pokes up over the edge he begins to shout, "DID YOU SEE IT? DID YOU SEE IT? WHAT WAS THAT THING!?" Horsepower huffs, blowing a bit of exhaust out his nasal ducts, and brushes a bit more refuge off his shoulders. "No, Ah didn't, I had my head stuck in the trash fer the moment. Powerglide looks confused. "What were you doin' in there? There's never anything good in the trash!" Horsepower says, "Li'l hard to avoid when I crashed inta the dumpster after those hoodlums yanked loose of my line." "Oh, right. /That/." Powerglide scratches his chin. "Well, atleast you got to pummel Windshear for a bit. That guy deserves every beating he can get." Horsepower smirks a bit as he looks to the smaller minibot. "Ain't that true 'bout all Decepticons?" "Yeaaah, I guess you're right about that," Powerglide says. He shrugs a shoulder, "So now what? What do we tell everyone? We don't even really know what, or /who/, they came here for." "Jazz was snoopin' round down there, maybe he saw more. He'll probably put somethin' up." That said the mechanic turns and transforms, starting to chug off. "Me, I'm gonna go find a carwash and get this trash offa me, or Loadout'll have m'aft if I track it back to base." "Yeah, you do that. I'm going to get a drink or something." And with that said, he transforms and takes off.